{Pink, Peach & Silver} Elegant Summer Wedding|Kristianna & Luke

An elegant venue, eye-catching florals, and a couple that is all smiles – that is some of my favorite things from today’s featured summer wedding exquisitely captured by Janelle Rodriguez Photography.

Kristianna & Luke special day started with a traditional church wedding and ended with an out of this world reception at The Old Daley Inn on Crooked Lakein Averill Park, NY. The whole day was just filled with beautiful details all accented in a striking, dreamy, palette of pink, peach, and silver. Bridesmaids in blush, bright pretty florals from Surroundings Floral Studio in a variety of pink and peach hues, silver mercury glass votives and a sea of silver décor all set in a an absolutely gorgeous ballroom- yes my loves, this sweet summer wedding is an absolute dream and some.

From the Bride, Kristianna:

How did you meet?

We have known each other since we were very young from a summer camp that our families both grew up at. During the summer of 2009, we both decided to be camp counselors at Camp Spofford in New Hampshire. The summer began with a missions trip to Costa Rica, where we started to become good friends. As the weeks full of campers passed by, our friendship grew. Halfway through the summer, we both got assigned to be the counselors for the same program, which meant we would be spending more time together because our cabins did all the activities together. In the first week, the girl’s cabin was relentless about how we would be “the cutest couple,” but we insisted that we were just friends! Then we were shipped off to a wilderness camp for 5 days, which is when my girls probably noticed that it was getting harder and harder for me to deny that we liked each other. When we got back to camp, we spent all of our time together, knowing it was the last week together before we had to leave to go back to our separate colleges. We left camp at the end of the summer and went back to our separate colleges in Chicago and Philadelphia, hundreds of miles away from each other… but Luke kept calling!

What were your Wedding Planning Inspiration and Style?

When we first got engaged, I did not have any vision for what our wedding would look like other than the fact that I wanted very bright flowers! I have always loved bright pinks and peaches, so I knew I had to find a florist that could really understand my vision for having flowers that really popped.

It took me some time and research to come up with a vision for the other details. Gradually, I found pictures of certain things at many different weddings and started to piece together what I wanted. For example, I found a picture of a beautiful centerpiece surrounded by mercury glass candle votives and just knew that I wanted everything to be silver and mercury glass! The bridesmaids wore blush pink dresses so that the flowers would pop against them. The groomsmen wore dark gray tuxes, which was Luke’s request. I also agreed that dark gray matched much better with the blush pink dresses!

We wanted our invitation suite to be very elegant, but simple, as we felt that gave the right impression of what the wedding would be like. We chose to use silver and white to match the silver and gray accents that we used throughout our reception.

Luckily, our venue for our reception was absolutely beautiful in and of itself. Our reception was at the Old Daley Inn on Crooked Lake in Averill Park, NY. When we walked into the ballroom the first time we visited, we knew that this was the venue for us. It is situated right on a beautiful lake and has so much history! It was the epitome of rustic, yet classic, elegance. The cocktail room had an amazing oak bar with a stone fireplace, which made the room feel very cozy. When you walked into the ballroom, it just felt so bright and open with all the windows looking out to the lake. Once we chose the Crooked Lake, it was easier to develop the vision for the details of our wedding because I wanted it to fit well within the atmosphere of the venue.
What are some of your favorite memories of the day?

For me, I absolutely loved the morning of my wedding day. We brought in makeup artists and hair stylists to my parent’s house so that we could all be together that morning. With twelve bridesmaids, this took a lot of coordination but was worth it because I could enjoy every one and just feel relaxed in the home I grew up in! It was so special and I think it made the morning much less stressful for everyone involved.

Another favorite memory was seeing Luke for the first time that day as I walked down the aisle with my dad. As soon as I saw Luke, I knew that everything that we planned could go wrong and I wouldn’t care because in the end, we would be married. Thankfully, nothing really went wrong, but I could enjoy the whole rest of the day knowing that.

Lastly, our dance party was pretty epic. We both have huge families with lots of fun cousins and we had so many friends there dancing that the floor was literally shaking! Luckily, our videographer captured some great footage of the night.

Do You have any advice for other brides?

My first, and probably most obvious piece of advice for brides is to enjoy the wedding planning process! It’s certainly easier said than done, but totally worth it if you can. I’m not implying that you won’t have to make some stressful decisions or won’t shed any tears over anything, because that will inevitably happen, but try to enjoy the overall process! Soak in the times when you’re surrounded by so many people who are there just to support you and your fiancé, like your engagement party, shower, bachelorette party and wedding. It’s an amazing and humbling feeling when you realize that everyone is there just for you!

Second, which is more practical, is to make use of every month of your engagement. We had an 11 month engagement so the first three months were full of the major decisions on picking venues and vendors. Then the last two months are full of tasks and decisions to actually pull the day off. Use those middle months to do things that aren’t time sensitive, like ordering bridesmaid/groomsmen gifts.